Kicking And Screaming (DVD)

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After the release of Eric Rohmer´s chatty-Cathy "Six Moral Tales" boxed set earlier in the month, Criterion continues its all-talking theme with the newest addition to its catalogue: Noah Baumbach´s 1995 debut feature "Kicking and Screaming" (not to be confused with the 2005 Will Ferrell comedy dud of the same title.)

Baumbach mined his family history all the way to an Oscar nomination with 2005´s indie darling "The Squid and the Whale." In 1995, the 26 year-old writer/director mined his college friendships for first, and somewhat less-successful, film. Actually, though "Kicking and Screaming" grossed less than $1 million and earned a tepid critical reception, it had a solid run in New York and brought Baumbach to the attention of the independent film community, though success did not follow until a decade later with "Squid."

Baumbach sets "Kicking and Screaming" in the "fifth year" (also the original title of the script) of college, a world of inertia and paralysis in which four recent college graduates place themselves. No longer students, but not ready to fulfill their capitalist role as productive citizens, they continue to hang out in the general vicinity of their tiny liberal arts college, occasionally hooking up with college girls, but mostly sticking with each other in their pocket-sized universe. This is a tightly-held world order (when an outsider is introduced to the group, one friend asks bitterly: "Why do you need more friends?") built on a flimsy foundation of arbitrarily rules and ennui. It won´t last forever, but it will last long enough. Who cares about anything else?

The film actually begins with an ending. Grover (Josh Hamilton) pleads with his girlfriend Jane (Olivia d´Abo) to change her plans to travel to Prague (he tells her Prague is such a cliché), but to no avail. This defeat sends him running back into the arms of his college buddies, where he tries to be happy, but soon discovers that "bros before hos" leaves you very lonely at night. Max (Chris Eigeman) also finds himself not fully satisfied with his new homosocial arrangement, and finds his route to happiness outside of the college culture altogether. The other two members of the cabal seem more content with their lot in life: Skippy (Jason Wiles) because he´s already got a cool and understanding girlfriend (or so he thinks), and Otis (Carlos Jacott) because, well, he doesn´t seem to have any other aspirations aside from not quite going to graduate school.

Baumbach´s characters talk in glib, clever aphorisms, and though they are all hyper-literate (except perhaps for Skippy), they also obsess over pop culture detritus. A discussion of Kant can be interrupted by a "Friday the 13th" trivia game, and a late night phone call is required when trying to remember an obscure character name from "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space." The dialogue is so stylized and idiosyncratic it dares the viewer to either "go with the flow" or risk "not getting it." In this regard, the film invites obvious comparisons to Whit Stillman´s "Metropolitan" (1990; Chris Eigeman also stars in both films), and it is only a matter of personal taste that I was able to "go with the flow" in Stillman´s film much more readily than I could with "Kicking and Screaming."

There is nothing "authentic" about the dialogue; the characters do not speak (or act) like actual human beings. This isn´t necessarily a flaw (any more than it was with "Metropolitan"), but I found it difficult to connect with these characters. The film is even one further step removed from reality by the fact that all the actors are clearly too old to be playing recent college graduates. This aspect works effectively, though, creating a weird sense of instantaneous reverie, as if the characters are mourning the past even as they live it in the present.